


Woman Wept

by justbygrace



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 15:04:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9662609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justbygrace/pseuds/justbygrace
Summary: I wrote two Woman Wept moments, both for Fleur if I remember correctly, and they always took place in the same timeline in my mind -- so I'm putting them in the same story.





	1. Chapter 1

"Gonna want to bundle up for this one," the Doctor had said and now here Rose was, wrapped in so many layers there was sweat streaming down her forehead. The Time Lord emerged from beneath the console, his expression darkening at the sight of Jack entering the room behind her. Without a word, he turned on his heel and led them towards the door, flinging it open and letting in a draft of icy wind.

Rose sucked in her breath at the sight that met her eyes, rolling waves of ice and snow towering hundreds of meters into the sky before plummeting towards the ground, brilliant colors of white and green and blue refracting the sun's rays over and over again. 

Jack was not so taken with the scene and said something about the TARDIS' film collection before firmly closing the door behind them. Rose took no notice of him, setting out at once to explore. The Doctor spoke up from time to time, explaining a bit about the history of the planet, but he was mostly silent as Rose darted and slid from formation to formation, exclaiming with delight over a dazzling ice structure and making a noise of distress over seeing a creature caught forever. 

Occasionally she reached out to him, grabbing his hand when she hit a slippery patch or touching his shoulder with her need to share the beauty she saw. He didn't rush her, encouraging her to take her time to explore everything that caught her fancy and answering any questions she had with none of the condescending comments she had grown used to from him. When at last she grew tired, he stood hand-in-hand with her, watching as the sun dipped below the horizon before bringing the TARDIS to them with a simple click of his sonic screwdriver. 

Before they crossed the threshold, Rose leaned over to press a kiss to his cheek, ignoring his look of shock and knowing that she was going to give this Time Lord her forever.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was originally called Forever, until I realized I had two stories called the same thing. Fun Times.

A gentleman would offer his jacket, Rose thought, shivering miserably beneath the frozen majesty of a thirty foot wave. At least the Tardis had provided a decent scarf, even if the Time Lord was an arsehole, the girls were going to stick together. The Doctor had taken one look at the scarf, let out a rude snort, and disappeared out of the TARDIS doors.

Glaring at her surroundings, Rose couldn't begin to understand why the Doctor had thought that Woman Wept was the perfect post-regeneration, post-Cassandra place to take her. The memory of her time here with her first Doctor - the real Doctor that traitorous voice whispered in her mind - was one of her favorite memories.

Jack had taken one look at the giant frozen waves and changed his mind about venturing outside, but Rose had been delighted. The beauty suspended in time had mesmerized her and she had wandered around going from one ice sculpture to the next. The Doctor had warned her to dress warmly and she had been toasty inside of a fur-lined jacket and boots. He had seemed to delight in her joy, never rushing her examination, taking her hand when she offered it, and not once making a derogatory comment about lesser life forms.

Now, staring at the current Doctor's long, swishy brown coat and sticky-up hair (really great hair that same traitorous voice whispered), she wondered how on earth she was supposed to find him to be the same man. She had seen glimpses of him from time to time, the whispered curse of Harriet Jones for example, but the jabbering, the bouncing from one thing to another - that she couldn't justify no matter what she said out loud.

"You know there are ways to live forever." The Doctor's voice cut through the still air.

Rose's mind whirled as she tried to figure out what to say. Finally she settled on, "Yes."

"It's a curse more than a blessing." His hands were jammed deep in his pockets, his shoulders stiff, his eyes set on the distant horizon. "That's an important thing to remember."

"Okay." She took a tiny step closer.

The weird half-light of this planet was reflecting off his face, leaving him partially shrouded in darkness. "You've never brought it up. Why have you never brought it up?"

"Living forever?" she clarified.

He jerked in his head in affirmation, his posture going even more rigid.

"I...." she cut off, unsure of what he was searching for.

"Never even occurred to you, did it?" he asked in a conscious or unconscious echo of his past self, she wasn't quite sure.

It had occurred to her actually. Several times, but with no actual conclusions. She shrugged, not certain how to respond.

"Do you want to live forever? I mean, if it was possible and if there was a way, which there is, I just said there was. Is." His words ground to a sudden halt.

She tiled her head, considering it. There were definite benefits, but the curses that he had spoken of she could picture all too clearly. Nothing like traveling with someone who was practically immortal to bring the blurry romance of it all into stark focus.

Biting her lip, she asked the one thing that had always held her back from ever bringing it up. "Do you want me to?" Hardly were the words out of her mouth than she wished she could take them back. The air between them was too new and fragile to support such a heavy question.

She felt more than saw his gaze swing to her in shocked surprise. After a long pause, he said, "It's not about what I want, it's about what you want."

A sudden flash of irritation shot through her. "No. You don't get to ask me without telling me what you want first"

"I don't?" He sounded surprised.

"No." She'd be equally as happy if they never had this conversation.

"I want a lot of things. Most of which I can't have. I have responsibilities, Rose, a duty to the universe. What I want doesn't play into that much." He was weighing each word before he spoke it. "Once, a long time ago, I lived by what I wanted and that didn't end well. I can't make that mistake again. I won't make that mistake again."

She didn't want to ask the question anymore than she wanted the answer, but she forced herself to speak. "Is that what it would be then? A mistake?"

He took a breath as if he was going to speak, but then shut his mouth. She figured the urge to run was screaming through his veins as much as it was screaming through hers; she'd learned how to run from him, after all. Bracing herself, she waited for him to change the subject, to suddenly remember a planet that needed saving, a once-in-a-lifetime sight that they needed to see, TARDIS repairs that simply must be accomplished now. He didn't. Instead he reached out, slid his hand down her arm to gently tug her hand free of her pocket and interlocked their fingers.

"No, Rose. We would not be a mistake." His voice was low, deeper and darker than she had yet heard it.

She turned her head and stared at him, studied the set of his brow, the line of his mouth, the sincerity in his eyes. "Yeah?"

"Yes," his answer was quick, decisive, his hand tightening around hers.

Rose nodded, stepping into his side and wrapping her free arm around his. "Immortality is something that I would happily accept if it happened, but not something I want to pursue, yeah?"

He nodded, pulling her suddenly into his embrace and resting his cheek on the top of her head. "Rose Tyler." And if she didn't know any better, she would have said it was a prayer.

At length he pulled back, taking her hand again, and tugging her towards the TARDIS. She still had questions running through her mind, questions and concerns and hesitations and hopes, but she accompanied him without giving voice to them. The strength in the way he gripped her hand told her more eloquently than anything he could have said that he was serious and that whatever the future brought, he was still her Doctor.


End file.
